And we have seen with our own eyes. What great words to give witness to what this letter of love is really about. John and those within the community are testifying to what they have experienced; mainly, God has Sent Christ into the world so that the world may know God's love. Simple.
Yet, this witness is not just reporting a car accident that someone saw and reports to the police, this testimony is moving, life shaping, life changing, and transforming. This account tells the story of God's love that has come into the world through Christ.
As a Lutheran Christian, I grew up with the feeling like we shouldn't talk about our faith, that is because that is the culture I grew up in. Not a biblical one, a cultural one. It wasn't til I left the church altogether that I was able to tell God's story and how that story was my story. There is something transformational about telling people my story by saying....I wasn't supposed to be here. My mother and I almost died when she was giving birth to me. Yet the doctors, nurses, my parents and all others account this day as a miracle. Given by God. And being able to tell God's activity in my life from the day I was born, helped me tell of the stories of love I have experienced through God since that time. Yet never in an abstract format. Because those stories always include people to help me hear God's voice, see God's fingerprints (see God is love part 2) and experience God's love.
How do you tell the story about God's love that you have seen or experienced with your own eyes?